Page:Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras.djvu/572

 of dissatisfaction. But, look at the state of things a little more closely. Almost all the Hindu and Muhammadan girls attending school are in Primary schools, and most of them in the lower standards of these schools. In Upper Secondary schools for girls there was, on the 31st March last, not a single Muhammadan pupil. Brahmans and Sudras were also entirely absent; and the whole Hindu community throughout the Presidency was represented by five girls! Is this as it should be? In Lower Secondary schools for girls there were 23 Muhammadans, 53 Brahmans, 32 Vaisyas, 338 Sudras, and 16 belonging to other classes. Out of 2,113 girls reading in these schools, 1,651 were Europeans, Eurasians, or Native Christians; while only 462 were Muhammadans or Hindus. Again I ask, is this as it should be!

A few months ago the attention of the public was directed by one who is now a Fellow of the University to the evils consequent on early marriage. On that occasion Dr. Smyth dwelt more on the bodily than on the mental aspect of the question. But in whichever of these aspects it is viewed, it is closely connected with the subject I am now considering, namely, the early withdrawal of girls from school. I am not here as a censor of your time-honoured customs, which, if changed at all, must be changed of your own deliberate choice. But it is my duty to impress on you two truths: firstly, the absolute necessity of educating your women, if you are to hold your own among the nations of the earth; and, secondly, the utter impossibility of this being done so long as custom withdraws girls from school soon after they have passed beyond the age of infancy. As I have said elsewhere; "Hindu and Muhammadan parents must be brought to face the vital issues that are bound up with this question. If Native society, in full view of all the circumstances, deliberately allows itself to fall behind in the march of progress, there is not another word to be said. But if it desires to take its place among the foremost peoples of the earth—to be a progressive instead of a stagnating or decaying society—it must gird up its loins and resolve at whatever cost to emancipate its women from the thraldom of ignorance. A society composed of educated men and uneducated women can never be a progressive society." Do you regard knowledge as a priceless possession tor yourselves, but a useless encumbrance or a curse to your mothers and your wives, your sisters and your daughters? You are prepared to make many sacrifices for the education of your boys, is that of your girls